Drowning in Tears
by pink-strawberries
Summary: She fell in love with him. She would cry for him, she would give up everything for him, she would even die for him. She thought he loved her back, but she was wrong, he turned his back on her and left her scarred..............setoXserenity
1. the pain of yesterday

Since most of my previous stories, are romance/tragedy, romance/action/adventure, or romance/drama. I decided a romance/angst story was needed to be included in the romance varieties............

This story is going to be a full-scale story, like most of my other stories and the couple is obviously setoXserenity, (I love that couple).

**A/N: **There will be minor doses of cussing and foul language, it is a PG13 fic so if you dislike that sort of thing please be aware of the prior warning. And it is an AU ficcy, so I am not going to bother with putting the plot into place with the Yugioh timeline.

I am a writer using English literacy and not American (notice the spelling differences e.g. colour, metre)

**Summary:** She fell in love with him She would cry for him, she would give everything up for him, and she would even die for him. She thought he loved her back, but she was wrong, he turned his back on her and left her scarred...................

Anyway I will get on with the story now and discontinue to interrupt.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh

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Drowning in Tears 

**Chapter 1: **The Pain of Yesterday

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I cried a thousand tears, and swore a thousand oaths. I loved you till death and even then I would still love you. I thought our love was like the moon and the stars, with the only difference being our love would last forever.

I loved you more than life itself, more than gold, jewels or diamonds; I loved you with no mortal end.

I would give away everything for you, my house, my education, my friends, my family and my money even my own life. I would hold your hand when you were in pain, and pray for you when you needed help.

I would even die for you...............

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Why did this happen to me? Why does love hurt more than hate? Why did the future become so meek? Why did love become diluted into nothing but pain?

_Why couldn't I see the truth, the truth that in the end would become reality? Why was I so blind? All the precautions were there, but I was too naïve to comply. _

_The world I lived in was a fantasy, a dream, and a fairy tale that slowly converted into a nightmare, or a phantasm. The happily ever after ending never happened, and never will happen._

How could I be so ignorant to think I could change his ways, change his life? It was all a deceitful lie, a lie that began from the very beginning, but all I did was disdained it, when soon the lie would corrupt and it did.

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Serenity glided aimlessly contemplating her history, the history she shared with him; it all come down to nothing. Now her life was hollow, an empty vortex depleted of any emotion; any emotion other than contemn.

The rain had previously drenched the streets of Toronto, Canada a few of the aluminum street lamps blinked animatedly, but a distressed woman strolling down that way gave it no notice.

Serenity clutched the sides of her body; her hands creased the gray moldy looking coat she wore, digging her chipped nails into the wooly, untamed fabric of the archaic coat she huddled in.

Wind teased with her lengthy uncut hair, her eyes were stained with fresh tears, and once in a while those tears would fall, only to be wiped away with her coat sleeve.

The street she walked on was isolated and seldom another living soul would pass by, but tonight the street belonged to her.

Nature stayed away from this street, trees failed to grow at any attempt and birds, or insects was usually found decaying or there just wasn't any.

Serenity paced along the uncomely pathway, the sides were chipped and the surface was amidst the process of deterioration. Natural and manmade waste disheveled the pensive street; buildings aligned themselves in basic etiquette, one after the other.

Even the cheap buildings, held no living soul just an empty crust or shell, the windows showed no inner light and the insides refused to move.

The sky lacked the guiding presence of stars, making the blank horizon look like a hollow hole with only a sullen moon there to protect the inhabitants of the Earth.

Forlornness colonized this moment, this place, tears fell for no-one to wipe away, pain suppressed her body for no-one to ease, and hate clouded her life for no-one to truce.

Serenity hugged her own body closer, soon midnight would hit the city and a new day will begin, but just like tonight, every night, every day will continue to be the same for Serenity.

Basically she was now a wasted shell, life was pain to her, and she had no one to live for, no one to die for, and no one to love. Her absence would cause no staining difference; she highly doubted anyone with the exception of her parlor friends would mourn over her death.

She had no divination to ease her very own pain; the pain **he** afflicted upon her, seven extensive years ago was when the truth unfolded. Even to this day, when she walked down this road, like she did everyday from then onwards, the stinging misery was still dew fresh.

The way he had hurt her, still remained like a acerbic sever constantly and forever stinging, the memories will never fade, they will everlastingly leave a scar on her, on her life, on her heart.

Seven years ago, when summer had taken a liking in Serenity's life, when she was still embracing the world as a beautiful masterpiece. Seto Kaiba walked into her life, he captivated her heart and she fell in love with what she thought was real love.

Serenity even trusted him with the precious virginity of her youthful femaleness. She let him take her, claim her as, his own; it was the first time she had ever made love with a man. The consequence was at first not one to be unwanted or disliked. Well not to her.

But unexpectedly Kaiba was not one to truly begin a life with a family, he was unprepared or basically disliked to have a baby born by his very own flesh One would wonder why, was it because he never sincerely loved Serenity, or was it only because he truthfully didn't want a baby to enter his life.

Serenity snorted at her own stupidity, she was a candid, guileless teenager blinded by insincere romance. She fell in love with his pseudo-act of what she fell for and thought was true love.

The way his words cut through her body, the way his hand slapped her cheek, or the way he hit her and mostly the way he reacted, when he found out about his embryo that was growing in Serenity's womb; his loathing disagreement. It was more than anyone can bear, it was hell right here on this unjust planet.

She could remember the day, her world, her life collapsed. The way her solid heart shattered, it was the day she knew would change her life forever...............................and it did.

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zzzzzzzzzzz flash back zzzzzzzzzzz

Seto Kaiba stood with his back turned against the door and his lover, who silently leaned against the expensive craftsmanship of the cherry coloured Curly Maple door.

Her complexion was veiled by the sulking masses of hair, which adjoined together as her head bowed down into a lament pose. Her emotions couldn't be properly understood, but the uneasy aura of the room, served as a clue.

The looming structure of Seto Kaiba, stared at the nebulous atmosphere outside his door-length window. His stoned emotions, were delicately plastered on his picturesque face, sinking deeper with every passing second.

"You bitch, how dare you beguile me" "Ha....it was already extensively fucked up, that you used those fucking whoring methods to seduce me, now this, this thing is growing in you fucken stomach" Kaiba shouted towards the direction of the window, when the actual spite was fired at Serenity.

"....Sset...to....."

"NO..you fuck up I don't want to hear your petty alibis, just fuck up" Kaiba cut Serenity's sentence so sharply, it was like a platinum knife.

"And stop fucken calling me Seto, my name is Kaiba......KAIBA!!!! Not fucken Seto..." this time Kaiba spun around to emphasis his emotional cuss.

Kaiba's eyes turned an inhuman shade of garnet and his face was beaded with sweat caused by fury. Serenity continued to seal her eyes towards the ground, though she had felt his change of direction, and slightly quivered with sincere freight.

"I'm..m....s..sor..ry" the words were squeezed out of her lips, they were obscured by pure fear and became a shallow cliché. "I.........di..dn't...mean t..." Serenity's sentence faded by her shyness, she couldn't speak properly without shaking from head to foot.

Serenity tried to stop her own head from lifting its present position to gaze into the eye of the storm, but the alluringness of the whole situation was bound to her weaknesses, refusing to budge. Momentarily she bobbed her head upwards to see the war on Kaiba's face.

The sight made Serenity shivering accelerate, Kaiba's body was stunned in an anxiety fixed look. His eyes were facing sideways at the length way direction of the room, his hands were pressed into enlarged fists, and the pinkness of his cheeks, scared her.

"I never thought we would happen....to have.....a a...baby" Serenity started her sentence audible, but the last half was merely repeated by her lips and mind, hardly by her voice. ".....I thought you would have liked to....have......a baby.......together....."

Kaiba redirected his eyes that were protruding; threatening to pop in his eye sockets, with the center iris turn a progressing tone of fluorescent magenta. It would have seemed that he could have heard the last of her sentence, but a possibility of unheard dilemmas is a much more positive than the other.

The dove walls looked like a picture from an ancient black and white movie, one half of the curtains was let down while the other was firmly tied up. Every piece of wooden furniture in the room was made of Curly Maple, the most expensive wood, legally obtainable; and not surprisingly here in Kaiba's room.

"Get out, all you seem to be doing is wasting my FUCKEN time, I have no time to fucken waste!!!!" "SPEAK or leave" his sentence was completely clear in with general understanding, the key words were emphasized and underlined; it was an imperative.

"I don't know............." Serenity was drowned for words, she was lost in mind and in fear, and the concept was common, a general epidemic for all.

"You don't know what........ha.......what don't you know?...." his laugh had a bitter sharpness pointing out off the edge.

"Well I do"

"Your just a fucken whore who slept with me, and is now pregnant with a kid who you claim is mine, when it could be one of your other drunken customers on the fucken street"

"What do you want? My money or something...ha is that why you prance around the place telling me about some fucken information, that you have my child, and want what? Financial support? A place to live?"

"What the fuck do you want? TELL ME" Kaiba spat his words out precisely at Serenity, his eyes scanned her for any retorts or reactions; but she did nothing.

Serenity felt tears brimming at the very edge and vertices of her eyes, she refused for them to fall, which would cause Kaiba to sneer at her even more than he already was. It was a ticket to hell, all she had to decide was whether she would take it or not.

"I just....all I want is for you to consider the child as........your....own......and love him or her" her voiced croaked with frayed sounds, like a dieing radio or electric device.

"As my own?" "AS MY OWN?" Kaibas voice jumped to full volume the second time he let the words flow from his mouth.

"Excuse me you whore, but for all I know the kid could be some other man's, who wanted some on the street"

"And you just want to use me for my money" his evidence was not as solid as his words were, in his mind and heart he probably knew that the child was really his, but just didn't want to submit to it. Either because of his dislike for kids, or the fact that Serenity was only a novelty item that he liked to play with, but she malfunctioned.

"It is you child Seto.......I know it" her voice some how seemed more articulate than before, but maybe it is only because she spoke with a very decrescendo volume.

Kaiba either heard or didn't but he didn't bother to retort with a whole lot of cussing, his hands both dug through his hair and then slid down his face, in a furiously agitated manner.

He moved in a prancing maneuver towards Serenity and grabbed her head with little care or the ache or pain it caused her, tilting it backwards, so her eyes could involuntarily be set on him. "I want to get this whole ordeal and fake dilemma straight"

"I am not the fucken father of your baby, so get a life and get lost" his words caused Serenity to figuratively fade, tears gathered at the sides of her eyes, but somehow seemed to turn into solid formations of crystals and not actually be liquid.

"But it is......"

Kaiba's bottled anger had popped its cork, a spur or more like anger of the moment, corrupted him into what one would consider the least uncivilized manner a gentleman could perform.

He literally pushed her cranium to the opposite direction and smashed it onto the Curly Maple door. Serenity's lost partial conscience when her skull was damagingly thrown onto the solid surface of the door.

Crimson liquid dribbled down her forehead and leaked onto her complexion acting as tears, she cried tears of magenta.

Kaiba noticed this and his face flashed a sight of anxiety, but hardened once again, he turned his back on her limp body and paced towards the window that featured the outer horizon. And he continued to stare at the sky, when Serenity was severely injured.

Silence turned into dulled anticipation, the blood traveled further and even started to thickly drip on her pants while the maroon stains on her face was beginning to dry.

The window's curtains had now being fully lowered and joined together, blocking the view from outside and the outside from the view inside.

Kaiba no longer stood blandly staring towards nothingness, now he was perching motionlessly upon a cream, calf leather adjustable sofa. His large palms covered his face and his elbows rested on the arms of the sofa.

A short knocking noise gripped the attention of Kaiba; apparently Serenity had knocked her blood leaking head onto the door, which had finally awakened her unconsciousness.

She screamed in understandable pain, her hands clutched the fresh blood that ran from her head and real tears were diluted with the bright redness of blood.

Kaiba saw her awake but only placed his hands onto his face again; Serenity removed her hands from the injury to see it soaked in her blood. She tried to stand up but the sharp pain in her head made a scream emit from her mouth instead.

The second impact had caused, masses of blood to arise from her injury, her whole head was submerged in blood, and it stained her orange hair, changing it into a deep shade of rusty rouge. The blood made it hard to tell whether the injury was a minor or major cut; but the amount of blood leaking from within it was probably a major injury.

"Hel.....lp...." Serenity still said those words, though she didn't intend on let them reach Kaiba's ears. She pushed all the pain behind her to lift up her head to try and discover the expression Kaiba held.

Plain and simple, that was all that could be used to plainly describe the look Kaiba held. Pensive or so, his face was downcast, and didn't bother to even meet look up; Serenity however was, as you could imagine dieing.

Her head felt numbed by excessive pain, she wanted to fly; escape from what ever had never ceased to let go, leaving her without the freedom to run. Kaiba rose from his seat and walked towards Serenity, with not much of a caring expression glued on his face.

"Looks like you banged your head..........go to the hospital" Kaiba didn't even look at her when speaking.

Serenity didn't change her current position, kneeling on the ground with her head between the comforts of her two arms. Almost pretending she couldn't hear his words.

"You heard what I said" "Or are you deaf?" Kaiba's face blackened with his voice. Presumably it was meant to sound convincingly caringly, but the rest of the sentence just ate itself up.

"GET UP" "GET LOST" "Go where ever, just get away from my sight" Kaiba jumped to his feet and moved in Serenity's direction. He acted as if she was the criminal, when his own corruption was the real felon that ruined someone else's life.

Serenity could feel every word, it drowned her in tears and in blood, the stinging of Kaiba's words sheered her skin like hot irons.

She prodded her chastised body upwards, so her feet could support the rest of her body. Even a simple motion like this caused tremendous laceration to her.

"What are you standing here for?" "GET OUT" "I never want to see your FUCKEN face AGAIN" his fists grew hot and so did the rest of his body, a palm lifted in the air and slapped Serenity in the face.

Kaiba turned his palm around and glared at the tinted markings of scarlet pigment that mildly covered his hand. His eyes averted their attention to the silenced woman leaning lamely against his varnished door.

There was nowhere the burgundy liquid hadn't devoured, her hair, her face it was all the same colour. Serenity indistinctly turned the gold doorknob with her left hand, leaving it with a bronze stain.

He continued to stare at her as if anticipating her every action, he was sharp and could see the hesitant twisting of her arm. "You must think I am really diluted don't you?" Serenity jolted and paused her body from finishing the escape.

"Unlike you, I was never blind" "Well, what are you waiting for GO, escape that is what you want? Isn't it?" he slid towards Serenity and peered downwards so his face was right above her injured head.

His index finger picked up her chin and commanded her to look into his eyes, "LOOK at me!" he shouted an imperative and Serenity's rouge cheeks twitched.

"Your just a bitch, did you know that a plain, good for nothing bitch" "You came into my life, with what goal?"

"What were you trying to achieve" "Did you want my money, my house, my company?"

"What the hell did you fucken want?"

"Tell ME" "WHAT DID YOU WANT?" Kaiba pinched his thumb into her reddened chin; her eyes refused to open and were bolted shut.

"WHAT?" "Can't you speak, tell me what did you want?" the words passed through his clenched teeth.

Serenity blinked her eyes open and with them followed tears, but they only reached as far as the creases if her eyes. "All I wanted...............all I wanted was your love"

His finger and thumb tightened the pressure on her chin; Serenity did nothing other than stand there and act venerable. "You bitch" the whispered seemed to only briefly reach her ears.

"YOU BITCH" his hand released its hold on her chin and forced a slap on her bloody cheek.

Tears were released in Serenity's eyes and ran all the way down her cheeks, glowing redder by every traveling distance. Her hand reached for the knob and turned it so the door was capable of opening its soothing light.

Serenity pulled the Curly Maple door open and removed herself from the melancholy within Kaiba's room. Her steps hastened down the crimson-carpeted halls.

She heard a sharp slam behind her, and light was swallowed away. Serenity closed her eyes when tears resurrected from her eyes. Antique-rimmed paintings of views and natural wonders, guided her way down the grand hall, her light feet pounced down the first set of stairs.

Serenity turned right and picked up her acceleration, a caramel door that had a gap to separate it from closing let off an amber candlelight.

A lock of black hair caught her attention but disappeared along with the light. Serenity reached the last staircase, with it's gold painted armrests and garnet velvet carpets.

It wasn't long before she reached the towering double doors, Serenity pondered about whether it was lock or not, in order for her successful escape.

She turned the cup-sized platinum doorknobs, and to her amazement the door was unlocked and free for her to leave. The outer atmosphere breathed on Serenity's skin and brought goose bumps to sensitive skin.

The sudden arctic environment pushed great pain on her bleeding skull, but the injury wasn't the only pain Serenity had received.

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It had been seven long years, since that man Seto Kaiba had penetrated her heart, only to scar it in shattered despondency. He had broken her heart, and a broken heart can never fully mend, a certain stitch mark will always be visible to remember the pain, or sometimes it wouldn't stitch together at all.

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Winter had blanketed Canada, and refused to let go, Canada always had a certain indefinable melancholy attached to the wet, and icy weather. That was why Serenity decided to move here, its environment matched her blemished traits.

Since then Serenity had moved in light of starting a fresh life, here in Toronto Canada but so far the past seemed to haunt her, latching on to her and becoming part of her, part of her life.

The road was long, and seemed to have no finish; it was just one vertically straight line with no intersections or sibling roads leading off or on to it.

Serenity decided to savor the crispness of the midnight and delay her footsteps, she was walking home but so far only a small percentage of the journey was completed.

The happiness fell with further velocity than even a nasty temper; Serenity lost all when Kaiba refused to recognize and consider the baby as his own. She had already given him or her a name, Matt if it turned out to be a boy and Blissy if it was a girl.

She had given a thought of keeping it, and even succeeded in walking out of the termination session, and the hospital in Canada, but the certainty left her right then.

Later only a few consoling hours after, she decided on a considerably solid decision. Serenity sat on an endangered park bench while brainstorming the pros and cons of raising Kaiba's baby, and in the end the cons overruled the pros.

It was then she walked back into the hospital; the doctors and nurses were slightly agitated by her randomness to leave, but partially understood the indecisive torment she was currently going through.

That day was presumably the most undecipherable in the whole years of her premature life. She went along with the operation while still holding down the part of her that wanted to keep the baby, but also then within wise intentions, not only would it cause emotional suppression but financially Serenity was unable to succeed.

If she had given birth to the child that would have genetically bore the last name of 'Kaiba' he or she would most likely have ended up in an orphanage. And the sin and torment of been unable to watch her flesh and blood grow up, was even more impossible to bear.

Serenity was clumsy and inattentive of her own health and well being, looking after a baby with attentive needs was near impossible.

The termination had proven positive; the baby as later examined, turned out to be a girl, Serenity had almost felt hollow without dead little Blissy somehow intertwined within her. Rue was the natural emotion one would feel after the death of your own baby.

Tears were more often normally seen after the abortion, the nurses at the hospital offered Serenity counseling but every appointment booked, was an absence of her body. In the end the nurses and doctors were slowly silenced from helping the emotional recovering of her mind.

She had rushed the trip to forever leave Japan, and make Canada her new home, so rushed that the abortion had to be held at a Canadian hospital.

Partially because she didn't want Joey or anyone in her past to take part in what was her decision. And another part, because she disliked the idea of Joey, Yugi or the gang to find out she wanted to do, which was to have the baby terminated.

It was no ones decision but hers, and hers alone.

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Work was usually normal; she would get told off by her boss, then continue to ruin the whole beauty parlor. Serenity didn't even understand why she was landed with this job; it was a totally different field from what she diligently studied at Tokyo University for six long years.

Consider it all a waste, her life long dream of becoming a lawyer was a mere blank hope, an ambition she was unable to fulfill, or more like ignoring to fulfill.

She had obtained a masters degree in law, and was accepted into a prestigious law agency in Tokyo, but after the whole ordeal with Kaiba and her teenage pregnancy, she refused probably the best offer her life would ever bear.

She still couldn't quite grip, the reason why she refused the offer and gave up the hopes of living a rich and prosperous life, a life she persevered in fulfilling her whole life.

But in the hidden chambers of her abyss mind and heart, she knew it was the choice she would be happy with, consider it cowering from reality, but she felt safe and that was all she needed.

Serenity gave up, or threw away everything after Kaiba had broken her, her job offer, her friends, her life, her baby, even her beloved brother Joey. She would rarely speak or communicate with him nowadays, it seemed like she avoided him, but he didn't bother to enclose that void either.

Joey was blind about her relationship with Kaiba, because both were certain it wouldn't go right if he was included in the picture, but even without Joey's interference the relationship still failed.

Sometimes Serenity would wish she did tell Joey about the hidden relationship, and he did find out, when it was too late.

He had known about the baby and didn't comment on her to keep it or terminate it, maybe he just didn't care. Serenity felt so isolated when her most reliable relative refused to continue to take part in her grief stricken life.

Serenity swore she could see Joey fume in angst, even though he tried hard to suppress his raging emotions, she could see the way he clenched his fists and sounds of destruction that would arise from his bedroom.

Joey refused, or simply didn't want to talk to her, even on the day she immigrated to Canada, he attended the airport but an audio farewell was silent, and a visual bayed was blind. He barely kept eye contact with her; he just stared at the floor, or anywhere else but her.

The whole Gang was there, forceful hugs and kissing on cheeks was absent, it didn't happen, just a plain 'Good bye' was all that emitted from their mouths. Serenity remembered herself biting on her lip, to stop herself from breaking into tears.

When pondering over truth, Serenity crossed the thought that the whole Gang, including her brother did much better without her presence. They didn't need her to be happy; nobody did.

Seldom a letter or email would arrive from Joey, even more rare a telephone over from Japan, she had counted the number of times Joey had communicated to her at all in the last seven years, and it was only six.

In them he would plainly and with, as less description or adjectives as possible, he would state where each of the gang had been up to and where they are.

Apparently Yugi and Tea were just engaged and the marriage was not long after, though Serenity had no mention of this holy matrimony other than a brief 'they got married' in one of Joey's letters.

No date no explanation, nothing and even less she didn't receive a notice or possibly an invitation from the bride and groom themselves, being one of their oldest so called 'friends'. But nothing came.

Duke had found a new path in America, though why and what he did there was blank. Tristan had found new love who's name wasn't mentioned and now works at an engineering factory, that made or did something, that Joey was too short written to tell her about; or neither did she care.

Mai and Joey had proven a successful couple and were on the verge of marriage, once again Joey did not apply this information; rather it was pondered by Serenity's own conscience.

According to Joey's information brief and lacking letter, Serenity could possible locate were all her previous friends were with their lives; much better without her.

Sometimes Serenity would read the letters or email to herself over and over again, and every time she did, the result would be more pain and tears.

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Dawn was creeping its way into the city of Toronto; a fiery ablaze lit in the edge of the horizon and melted away the ravaging darkness. Day was rising from its brief slumber shining in victory, while night was dying of loss.

Serenity realized the sudden change in perspective, and bobbed her head up for a brief minute to see, her eyes lost interest and her neck crouched downwards again.

Today, like everyday was what her daily routine would be, at 7:30am in the morning Serenity would go to work at the Style beauty parlor, and work till 8:00pm when she would seldom eat dinner, and leave her body to wander this very isolated street.

She barely went home, it seemed this very street was her sanctuary.

It seemed that day-by-day, her health depleted and failed her; her body had taken its toll and changed Serenity's once vigorous and youthful features. With previous having an abortion, it was even more physically poisonous on her body.

Her friends at the beauty parlor worry for her, but she would always shut away their supporting comments, usually their consoles would end up with her friends talking to themselves.

Serenity had even adapted to recognize when a life lecture was lingering around the corner, and automatically she would escape or turn herself off.

Life proved superficial and callous in Serenity's eyes, she even lost the proud recognition for the beauty Mother Nature creations, like the parks she use to strolled down or the waves rippling on the ocean.

Her days were polluted with lost thoughts, and diverged concentration; her friends booked an appointment for a therapist, only to have Serenity curse uncontrollably at the stunned counselor, and no appointments have been booked from that day forward.

Serenity supposedly lost the beauty of her complexion and body, the very day he had shattered her fragile heart. Her eyes never gleamed with joy and laughter, and premature wrinkles embedded themselves on the bridge of her nose and forehead.

She was now at a wise age of 27 but, to herself and some others she looked 40, her skin lacked moister and Serenity didn't bother to help it or mend the problems.

The skin on her cheek started to peel and chafe, depression was controlling her solemn life. And she suffered from it.

Although Serenity worked at a beauty parlor, beautification was the last thing she had on her mind, Serenity would sometimes ignore cleansing her skin or even moisturizing it. Looks didn't matter to her anymore; she had no one to look beautiful for.

Wind scraped her rusty brown hair, it was roughly tied in an unkempt bun, but most of it had fallen apart and hair was dangling all over the place.

Strangely minor strands of premature gray hairs have shown their silver faces, the boringness of their presence wasn't cause by old age, but instead by stress.

Serenity's mane had completely lost their previous shining healthiness; it was now split ended, statically uncontrollable and dandruff irritated her scalp, sticking in-between her humid strands of hair.

Sometimes at shops or restaurants, people mistake her for an elderly woman, or aunty, Serenity didn't care about those complements anymore.

The first time that happened, she felt heat rise on her face, but now it was almost a daily habit. Serenity looked terrible, like time alloyed with depression stole every physical beauty away; it was true, she stood on a thin line between beautiful and ugly.

"Ha...its now 3:00am in the morning" "Its nearly time to go home, work would be starting soon," Serenity told herself peering slightly at her watch.

She was use to it, living this sort of a life; she could even predict when it was time to return back to her apartment. Serenity never slept, it only caused more openings of pain, and a whole night of unheard crying. She decided to replace sleep, by walking on this street, she still cried, but liberty eased her pain.

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Coral blueness now took up majority of the sky, and black hollowness melted into violet streaks. The bright sun gleamed on Canada, and Serenity felt a sort of shyness to sunlight.

Her pace hastened, and wind lifted her hair up so it was flying in the sky, Serenity's hair was now nearly past her posterior, and proved difficult to tame. She retreated into scrunching the fair strands into an inadequate bun, or ponytail, but that didn't last for a whole day.

Serenity turned the corner, and halted when her feet left the pathway of her street 'Downs Street', she felt incomplete but quickly rubbed the feeling off.

Immediately the environment that was one step away from 'Downs Street' was immensely different, this street was clean and replenished. It felt unusually foreign, even though Serenity had been crossing this street to her apartment for nearly seven years now.

The concrete sidewalks were recently laid and remained in excellent condition, tendered for and polished, while 'Downs Street' was abandoned.

"Siren Street" Serenity spoke to herself, she always walked this way to return home, but she had never bothered to learn the name of this street, the street that connected to 'Downs Street' where her heart lay. It was her savior.

Serenity noticed a few people walking on the street, she felt uneasy, usually 'Downs Street' was depleted of any life and that was how Serenity wanted it to be like; that is how she wanted to live, alone in solitude.

Before her relationship and through it, Serenity was always pictured small, elegant and slim. Nothing about the body has remained the same; she was now almost twice as skinny as she was before.

Doctors in Canada diagnosed her with anorexia caused by depression, but she didn't bother to take the recommended pills and medicine that they had prescribed to her. She didn't care about those things any more, she acted that way because she wanted to, and no one could change her.

When Serenity had arrived in Canada, she actually suffered from obesity caused by depression, then moved on to bulimia by depression, now anorexia caused by depression. Every sickness she got was from the one thing that cursed her life, depression.

Serenity wondered if Joey would care about the fact that his once beloved sister was basically murdering herself. She would rarely eat meals or snacks and would only appease her daily needs with a cup of milk, which would satisfy her invisible hunger.

She could even remember the last time she had eaten a complete meal; it was at the hospital when she had fainted at work and her boss called an ambulance.

That was the first day the doctors had been involved with her health excluding the time she had her abortion, they forced her to eat carbohydrates, protein, calcium and most of all lipids.

Serenity accepted, but only for one day and three meals, they believed her lie that she dramatized for their shallow eyes. She would secretly regurgitate the contents after every meal, pricking the tonsils tucked at the back of her throat, and claimed she needed to use the lavatory as an alibi.

Serenity was even sure, that at least one of the nurses or doctors were suspicious, but a healthy glow surfaced her face, so they let her go after two days. Right after stepping out of the hospital, Serenity's glow disappeared, and she returned to being fatally ill.

Some might cower and squirm, but Serenity did nothing of that kind, some might consider her naïve and lacking in knowledge, or others might just blandly specify her as mentally retarded.

She wouldn't lift a thought about others remarks, she didn't care because now there was nothing considered valuable left to care about.

She wasn't afraid of diseases or epidemics, if today she were diagnosed with cancer or aids, her life would continue to be simple and wandering.

To put factual information and emotional thoughts as primary and plain as possible, Serenity Wheeler wasn't afraid of death.

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Serenity walked in almost a queer way, her head was struggling to be tucked into the unraveling cameral scarf and her feet scarped the brittle surface of the ground, refusing to lift upwards.

If first impressions were importantly etiquette, Serenity would have been shot, she looked much or exactly like a beggar that was too stubborn to beg.

A few old women strolling along the same street peered towards her, with a disgusted grimace on their creased faces, Serenity was noticing such gestures, but paid them no attention.

The air was primarily, and knowingly thick the morning freshness was all the more refreshing to Serenity. She did not need sleep to revitalize her day's torment, the walk through the night, and the mint air replaced sleep for her.

Traffic lights were supposedly wasting Canada's electricity, which equaled money, there was hardly any cars traveling on the road so agonizingly early in a working/weekday morning. Some vehicles held the obvious clues of prior booze and dazed perceptions; this all became a powerful elixir for death.

All of this didn't interest Serenity; she kept focused on the pathway below her feet and walked towards her secluded apartment.

It wasn't among the so-called bad parts of town; it was actually situated quite unfittingly near elegant, miniature boutiques and minor grocery stores.

Quite normally like always in Canada, pristine flakes of snow fell like angels from their unknown origin. A few touched Serenity's nose and face, but she ignored them like she ignored everything else.

Over pitched feminine laughter rose from the vicinity within one of the second hand clothing and dressing gown, boutiques. A lilac light seemed to center the inside of the store, leaving hardly any glow to reach the sidewalk.

Serenity slid past, walking in a moderate pace like she had nothing more interesting to do, which was quite true. The laughter would curiously alarm any passing pedestrian, those that couldn't resist to actually peek at what made others so gallant with snorting laughter.

The giggles never ceased to end, it made her ponder whether or not the ladies within were actually breathing or not. But even with the temptation of a giggling frenzy, and the thought of looking into the full-length glass windows, Serenity managed to control the unnecessary emotion perfectly.

The ground was soon covered in a shallow layer of snow particles, either quartz flakes or puffed balls of snow. But the road wasn't the only place the snow had fallen on; it had tangled itself between Serenity's tan strands of dry hair.

They had placed their celestial bodies on her clothes, decorating them like scatters of glitter or jewels. The flakes or balls never lasted long, soon they would melt and disintegrating leaving a microscopic dot of frozen liquid.

Serenity had managed to scant past the short ending line of shops, which aligned themselves in order. Not looking once to see beyond the shatterproof glass, to browse at the items or people within. She was not interested or couldn't be bothered, but she certainly had time.

In only a matter of fifteen minutes, the horizon had managed to lighten faster than electric light bulbs. The chalky blueness was still developing, currently at the state of dusted jade.

It seemed as though a few extra inhabitants were strolling on the street, but the numbers were still not vast enough to bother Serenity; even though, she still decided to hasten her acceleration like a vampire running from the sun.

Serenity turned a corner of an intersection, on the side of a fast food shop and made her way vertically downhill. This road lacked even more human visitors, but somehow the whole general charisma, had increased in satisfaction.

Apartments that soared into the dusky sky or even ones only three or four stories high, they still managed to waft off a homely scent. A few apartment buildings were bejeweled with the very essence of money, letting all know that this was where, those who could make the big bucks and wanted a small habitat, could live.

Every apartment there had Italian style balconies, stuffed with sunbathing chairs, and Hawaiian picnic tables with a floating parasol standing in the middle. Canada had no 'sunny weather' or hardly, making minimal use for hibiscus imprinted parasols, or sunbathing chairs.

The entry to the apartments of the rich, were barricaded with tree-height aluminum alloyed iron bars. The fences were decorated with preposterously overly expressed pictures, created by the art of bending bars.

There were pictures of flowers, patterns, and other generally shocking drawings made from iron bars that became part the gates. The slim bars of iron that were artistically curved into pictures looked rather feeble and easy to manipulate. But then again, walking among the rich could cost you more than a pair of ripped pants.

Even though space was endangered, the architects never ceased to grandly intensify the surroundings with bushes, botany and flowers that looked like they were paid to bloom.

There were golden chrysanthemums for those who preferred the dryness of autumn and frangipanis for people who are awed by the tenderness of summer. Peach blossoms, quietly shed her pretty faces in the eastern corner of the buildings, and scattered forget-me-nots popped their heads among all the other seasonable plants.

But the green foliage themselves, look more or less like flowers of their own, shaped and sculpted to primal perfection. Everything about the rich apartments, made Serenity long to be rich, but then when too much of that thought had entered her mind; she halted from continuing to think like that.

She hastened past the apartments, hoping to get the sickening thoughts clarified from her mind. Slowly with each passing apartment, some kind of grandness seemed to be diminished.

Serenity nearly skidded to stop herself from wearing the sole right off her Doc Martin's, the tall apartments shaded a smaller one that could easily be missed due to its cuteness in size.

There were only four floors, each accompanied by a simple English window and a sun booth, the outer whiteness of the paint looked gray because of the lack of sunlight.

The morning transfixion was nearly complete, Serenity stared at her apartment before making her way down the driveway. It sloped in a curvy path, extending vertically before resuming an upward direction.

At the very bottom of the apartment floors, a low ceiling car park with only four cars present nestled themselves in-between the painted lines.

In the western vertex, three oblong-shaped sap green rubbish bins attracted a few shiny-bodied flies, which buzzed contently around the closed black lids.

The concrete ground had small puddles of murky brown liquid, which Serenity didn't bother to ignore. She either stepped in them having the substance dot the legs of her pants, or the liquid was too shallow to make a mark.

In the very middle of the car park was a pair of chrome escalators and next to them was a maroon coloured door that was slightly ajar. Serenity slid her feet in the direction of the door leaving wet footprints whenever she took a step.

The hem of her senescent Levi Strauss drawled on the dusty ground picking dirt wherever she walked. Serenity coiled her tonally spotty hands around the metal door handle. The aluminum gripped the palms and fingers of her hand, gluing them on the icy touch of chrome.

The responsiveness caused a momentary sensation to ripple through her body; it entranced her mind and tangled with her thoughts. She felt eased, like the raw coldness bit through her veins and arteries, it made her feel transparent blissful and maybe even, forgiving.

She instantly realized her delay and wedged her hand away from the poisonous touch of iced metal. The insides of her palm and fingers seemed artificially stained with coral pink paint, a few seams of skin had blood encrusted on the corners.

Serenity shook her left hand and patted it on her gray wool ankle-length coat, her face strained with stinging discomfort. "Shit" the words emitted from her mouth, before she resumed her way towards her apartment.

The stairs were absurdly squished, luckily for Serenity she wasn't a claustrophobic or else her sanity would be forced to collapse. The stairs were fairly clean, but humanly things such as a piece of rubbish or shoe smudges were inevitable.

Serenity went up in a twirling direction, and ever time she reached a floor there would be a door with the floor number clearly printed in black paint, that reflected the light's rays.

After five or so minutes of strolling up the confined stairs, the block letters of floor number '4' flashed in front of her face, Serenity paced towards its silver knob and wrapped her hand around it to turn the handle.

The door let off a prolonged squeak and Serenity entered floor number four where her apartment was situated. Every door was covered in an arid brown colour and the innocent white walls of the hall strained her eyes.

Serenity turned left and walked down the plain hall, the floor was bedded with a gray-navy cement floor. Her flat heels made a graceful pat on the heavy stone floor.

A door with the same acidy brown colour as every other next, or around it bore the bronze inscription of the simple number '10'. Serenity stopped in front of the door and reached inside her coat pocket to reveal a copper-tinted key with a rusty brown chain hanging from it.

She inserted the key and opened the door to her apartment. Serenity reached for the light-switch and flipped it upwards opening a shaded bisque light bulb, which swayed anxiously on an insulated piece of white cord.

Her room was completed in a thick grayish brown colour, the two couches with their torn backs facing the door had bits of stuffing poking out of it's sea-foam gray covering.

The place wasn't dirty or exactly unkempt, but lacked a homely welcome; it lacked a soul and serene environment. Serenity walked into her home and accidentally stepped on the latest edition of the Canadian Times (A/N: this is a made up name for a newspaper).

She bent down and picked up the thick thirty-four pages of a weekly delivered national newspaper. Without glancing at the titles and articles she threw it all on the kitchen bench.

Serenity closed and locked the door behind her, she walked towards a mini fridge that was only a metre tall, and was painted a queer colour of green.

She got out a medium bottle of standard milk, then reached into the upward cupboards and grabbed a transparent cylinder shaped, glass cup. Serenity poured herself half a cup of milk and began to drink out of it, when a picture on the newspaper drew her attention.

On the very front page, an A4 sized photo of the leading entrepreneurs of 2004 showed the front shot pictures of around 10 or 12 businessmen and women.

Serenity scanned the photos for the one that caught her attention, and she found it. On the second row and fourth down was a picture of Seto Kaiba, shining his bored face and dressed in a navy tuxedo, complete with a white tie on a black shirt.

The cup slipped from her hand and collided with the tile ground, shattering into a multitude of broken fragments. Milk moved across the floor and seeped within the grout gaps.

Serenity threw the newspaper onto the puddle of milk and Kaiba's face soon dissolved into a disarray of gray and black ink. Her eyes were forced shut and when she opened them they reflected with tears.

She used the newspapers to soak up the milk before scrunching it into a hand-sized lump and threw it into the trashcan that stood beside the fridge.

Serenity pulled the average sized pearly white rubbish bin towards the smashed glass and started picking up the larger pieces with her bare hands. She had managed to throw all the large fragments into the bin, and fetched a brush and shovel to pick up all the smaller pieces.

After all the seeable glass pieces were safely tucked away in the trashcan, Serenity walked to her answering machine and pressed the play button.

"**You have four messages" **

"**Message number one" **"Hey Serenity its Eliza, the girls and I are thinking of going out tomorrow night. Call me if you decide to come, or even if you don't want to come, call me anyway. Thanks

"**Message number two" **"This is doctor Ralph, Serenity Wheeler, please call me on my office number as soon as possible. I just want to discuss your medication issues. Thank-you.

"**Message number three" **"Serene, its just Amy just calling to say hi. I hope your doing ok, and sorry I could come to your place on Sunday. My father had forced me to go on a family outing. So if you have time call me.

Serenity lifted her lips into a curved smirk, sometimes her parlor friends were slightly over persuasive, not to mention annoying.

"**Message number four" **"Hey sis it's me Joey........... it's ben a while hasn't it?"

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Well, how was it? Please review.................because I have the second and third chapter all planned out, if you want it to come faster......then please review!!!!!

Just to mention, if you like reading setoXserenity stories I have a short collection of them (which I will be updating soon) and I know just which stories are jewels to read.

THANXXX


	2. the changed and the changing

Well the last chapter was a small insight to Serenity's life, so this chapter will continue with the, oh so sad story of Serenity Wheeler. And the reason Joey (you guys knew it was him right?) called.

Thank-you to everyone who reviewed, to tell you the truth and I say this for every other author on fanfiction or anywhere else, even books. The most pleasing reward is to have their story review, it makes them feel ……………………..wanted (I know that sounds corny, but it is true).

A big smoochy thank-you to: squallgurl, kikoken, nightmare, ksaturn, setoserenity 4 ever, and all the others who reviewed.

**A/N:** I just want to comfort all those who are in a transfixion of anticipation to see my other stories updated. I will update them all, soon. I'm still thinking of new ideas for the stories and chapters……….I tend to be a bore

'**A maiden among the weeds'** will be updated as soon as I come back from Christmas camp, and **'Love isn't forever'** will be updated either before or after that. Then last of all I will update **'Is This My Happy Ending'**.

And I have a new story that will be uploaded straight after this……………it's going to be called **The Story Of An Angel.**

For all you people that love tragedy, angst and the enthusiastic drama of a setoXserenity paring the story is for you. Here's a brief summary……

**Summary:** She is a celestial being who belongs in Heaven; he is a human that is to remain on Earth. Two worlds collided and they fell in love, but for two different beings to be together is impossible. She left his heart dangling and soon their love faded. But 10 years later she gave everything she was to be like him, only to find out he didn't love her anymore…………..setoXserenity

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**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or the song I Don't Need You To (Tell Me I'm Pretty) that is by Samantha Mumba, I only own the knowledge that fills my mind, actually even that was blessed upon me by GOD.

Now before we continue to intensify you with the dilemmas of Serenity's wasting life……….we will see how the life wrecking Seto Kaiba is doing. He was really dark in the last flash back, but this upcoming peep into his present time will reinforce his malice it may start of random…….but later is when the craziness really starts………

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**Drowning in Tears **

By: Pink-strawberries

**Chapter 2:** The Changed, and The Changing

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"Mokuba!" "For the love of God, eat your steak with the steak fork. Not with the vegetable fork" Kaiba had yet to calm his maturing acrimony.

Mokuba Kaiba was anything but attentively blithesome of his senior brother's newborn lecture, which he had practiced and qualified to perform. "For goodness sake Seto it is only a god-damn fork".

"Mokuba, don't you dare begin a cascading array of tonal curses" Kaiba had already set down his olive fork, which was previously positioned to stab the sap, green Greek olives, quiescently embedded between the steak and the tower of iron enriched broccoli.

"When the hell did you become a martyr" "You're starting to sound like a pope, can you even hear yourself?" "Mokuba, don't you dare start cursing….blah……blah…..blah" Mokuba protruded his tongue, that showed the slimy remains of his previous mouth-full of food.

Kaiba revealed a castigate scold, his hands that were meant to be circled around two utensils, were aridly pressed on the outer surface, of his Curl Maple ten metre dining table.

After trying to telekinetically kill Mokuba, Kaiba softened his brows and resumed to eat his evening meal. His left hand welded a platinum fork that had a piece of New Zealand paua stuck on the prongs; he made a quizzical frown before sticking the fork in his mouth.

Mokuba had dropped his face and swirled his spoon around, mixing together his vegetables and meats. His hair had change more than anyone could imagine, Mokuba decided to go for a mini mow-hawk.

Now he was at the adult age of 22, but his appearance was nothing close to mature. It seemed Mokuba had adopted the 'punk, street' look, with his chains and bulldog spikes, on his neck and wrists.

His body was nearly complete clad in black; from head to toe even his boxers were chrome, black Chinese silk. Mokuba stood up and walked to the freshening booth at the side of the dining hall.

His eyes traced Mokuba and shadowed his every movement, and it made the vertical line of maids, and servants blink in uncertainty. Mokuba paid him no interest and returned to the table carrying a crystal cup of authentic Hawaiian Mango, and guava juice.

Down both sides of the dining hall, was a small line of approximately six maids and servants, waiting to serve the Kaiba brothers, on hand and foot.

The male servants, and the female maids were kempt in slightly different uniforms. The maids were required to dress themselves in a silver shirt, with a misty-navy cardigan pulled on top, every time they made working contact with the Kaiba Mansion.

The girls ranged from early twenties to late forties, but every one of them had to wear a tight fitting, navy knee-length office skirt. Instead of socks they wore dark, teal-blue full-length stockings with flat lace-up shoes.

The male servants wore a very stereotypical uniform complete with a looser silver shirt, and navy jacket that had the sleeves missing. They had a pair of indigo-coal tuxedo pants, and silver socks with black polished, lace-up shoes.

To define the servants and maids from any other, Kaiba insured they had a formal embroided Kaiba Corp logo, on every one of their uniforms. The logo was a light-reflecting mithril platinum colour, and stood out from its navy backdrop.

Kaiba took another morsel bite, before draining his want and need to complete his evening meal. "Clean away my plate" every minion rushed to clear Master Kaiba's plates, and utensils.

On the other side of the table, Mokuba's pupils rolled upwards and scrutinized at Kaiba's side of the dining hall, while devouring his own meal. His brother and even himself had gone through a metamorphosis.

Simultaneously post to Serenity's phase, the Kaibas both altered irony filled the socially deprived spaces of the Kaiba Mansion. At first Kaiba was nearly, if not completely missing physically, his presence was devoured and the servants rejoiced.

Mokuba had himself poked his head out of the cocoon; the urchin light had being buried. At times both the Kaibas would be missing in action for days, which turned to weeks and seldom months.

But the real unsolved mystery is the sudden jerk in Seto Kaiba's new change, his appearance, traits they altered and modified. Sunlight had reappeared to chase away the shadow on his face, all of a sudden the Kaiba residence leaped into a new day.

And the servants mourned.

It was like the heavens had bolted him in the cranium, Kaiba no longer concealed himself from the media; instead it was more like the fact that he stole every opportunity to flash his image on television.

He seemed 'joyous' for the first time in his maturing life, till this day the supernatural change had been classified as the doing of aliens. That is what the media, public basically everyone thought, that Seto Kaiba the Great had been given a brain transplant by aliens.

In the real confines of Seto Kaiba the Great's life, you would realize it was nothing of general attention, he was still the high-riding jackass he had always been.

Mokuba became punk or more precisely Goth; his hair was shaved on the sides, leaving the middle to be spiked up into a flat blade like shape. He looked like a hammer with pale make-up and amateur lines of eye definition covering the old cuteness of his face.

School was out of general manifestation to Mokuba, he left halfway towards obtaining a degree in business, claiming that the course was too much of a strain. But the truth was hardly an adequate reason No it was bullshit.

His pseudo-Goth instincts told him to give up on education and instead submerge his belief in the religion of Goth. Kaiba was hardly jolted, instead he rolled at least a million cursing words off his tongue, and at the end of the whole animosity Mokuba was drowning in Kaiba's saliva.

The maids had a contusive epic battle over who could grab the most of Master Kaiba's plates, each power-walked over to the dining hall table, and nipped all the surrounding cutlery and food containers.

It was similar to a tornado, but at least they worked with beneficial outcomes. "Wash" Kaiba turned around on his ermine and velvet seat, while four maids rushed up to him carrying a china washing basin, natural frankincense and rose water hand wash all placed on a silver dish.

One maid drawled beside him and delicately brushed his hands, with a natural sea sponge. The next lathered on hand wash, while the other two stood like a pole stiffly holding the silver platter.

"That's enough" the maid was caught in the middle of anxiety, she jumped and the china bowl of newly condensed rose water, that Kaiba had his hands in, flipped on to the tiled floor that was checkered dusk blue and milky gray.

It was like dominos, the other three maids dropped everything held in their hands due to reddening shock. "What the FUCK" "Can't you bitches wash my hands without killing me?" the upper half of his dusty alkaline blue pants, turned mouse black.

A perpetual stench of retirement home perfume wafted gallantly around the whole dinning hall, Mokuba wrinkled his nose in reaction to the overly foreign smell. His plate still had most of the decorative delicacies still sculpted with perfection; the carrot and turnip carved pictures of Hawaiian flowers still had all of their petals.

All four of the maids kneeled on the ground with their foreheads rubbing the immaculate floor. The maids shivered like Antarctica was all around the inner mansion, Kaiba noticed their silence, not even pleads of forgiveness crossed their mouths.

Everyone in the room had eyes flooded with mutual fear; it was stapled in their eyes, drummed in their ears and plastered on their mouths.

Kaiba bent down low kneeling his left foot on the ground and perching his right leg up, his elongated fingers traveled below the more attractive of the four maids chin. With an upward stabbing motion, Kaiba lifted her face parallel to his own.

Without any rational contradiction, Kaiba dug his lips into the chaste ones of the abashed maid. His fingers slid around the countenance of her jaw line, and pinned into the maid's flesh, seizing his opportunity Kaiba's tongue was granted access into her mouth.

The element of consternation traveled like an epidemic around all the servants of the Kaiba mansion who were witnesses to the master's lustful interest in a preteen maid.

The young maids face, was between anxious and delirious it would lean more to one side at times then lean to the other, at another time. Her hand creased the fabric of Kaiba's shirt, overwhelmed by the scorching kiss they shared.

In an instant the doltish maid, was crushed against the elaborate wall ornaments. Kaiba dropped his arm and let it rest, an apple red bruise shone like fluorescent cream on the maid's face.

Kaiba penetrated his glare at the injured maid, daring both her and all the other servants to make a small adjustment in movement. He rested his lips upon the edges of her ears, and breathed into her body causing the skin of her face to turn lilac gray.

"I'll deal with you later" his susurration reiterated through her hollow eardrums, it leaked an arctic embrace every time they echoed. Raindrop shapes of tears flew down her cheeks, her tourmaline aquamarine irises turned blurry with a three-dimensional effect.

Perspiration rose in full sized droplets on the servant's foreheads, and the pinnacles of their noses. Kaiba strode towards the dining hall door and blinked for the guards to open the double doors, which were made of the same material as everything else, Curly Maple.

Mokuba jumped up simultaneously post to Kaiba's depart, and was planning to abandon his plate that had barely the surface scraped of food. Instead of quietly sneaking away from the hall, Mokuba did the fatal, grabbing the round bottom of the plate; he slammed his oval dish and food onto the right side door.

Mince, macaroni sauce, broccoli and carrot sticks dribbled down the immaculate polish of the ruby coloured door. The impact drove Kaiba's perspective in the opposite direction, he swiveled his feet and came to an anchored halt.

"SEIZE HIM" Kaiba now had both his feet plastered on the parallel opposite of the top part of the door.

Two men in stone gray suits locked on to Mokuba, stationing him by his arms while they pulled him back to his chair. "Let go of me" "Kaiba your sick, you know that. SICK!!!!!!!"

It was the first time in the centennial of history had Mokuba ever called his elder brother by their adopted-family name 'Kaiba'.

A faint hum rode through the hall, but its origins were unknown no one paid any attention to anything that would disturb the scene of a holocaust.

"Get him Mrs. Takushimo" "Ring her and tell her to come over I want Mokuba to learn from her" "He will learn the proper Kaiba etiquette of eating and he will finish his fucken plate of food with the right cutlery. Even if it takes him the whole day" Kaiba spoke facing the direction of the outside hall.

"No! Get the fuck off me, you hear? LET ME GO" the two men held even harder lifting Mokuba onto his chair. One of the maids that had spilt the china of rose water rushed to the phone on the side bench and pressed the numbers. Her hand shook purposely and hindered her punctuality to dial Mrs. Takushimo.

Mokuba droned on screaming as if he was in the rooms of an asylum, the two guards had difficulty keeping the resisting boy to sit properly on the chair. The legs of the chair rattled animatedly coming alive with fury.

"Chain him to the chair" "For the whole day" Kaiba spoke with a controlled tone, he heard the commotion and his face lost its old glare, turning even darker than before.

Another maid brought out a diluted box that had its edges peeling and ripping, and she lifted out its contents, a blotchy oxidizing chain. The maid moved with a paper white face, handing the chain to one of the guards

"NO……NO….you CAN'T KEEP me here"

"LET ME GO………you hear"

"LET ME GO"

"LET ME GO"

"LET ME GO

"LET ME GO"

"LET ME GO"

"LET ME GO"

"LET ME GO"

"LET ME GO"

"LET ME GO"

"LET ME GO"

"LET ME GO"

"LET ME GO"

Kaiba's tan white shoes tapped gingerly on the tile cover of the departing hallway, paying no attention to the ominous echoes of his brother that drowned with every step, until it could no longer be heard.

CLANK

The door of the dining hall bounced back into place by natural force, a messy clatter of the adjustment of locks paused on for many minutes before it was finished and everything went, or more like pushed into place.

And soon silence ate everything.

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The blonde light blinked with illness and gave off a pale light that drowned the shadows themselves, the wall paper was peeling off the walls in some places, while in other places it was tainted a urine yellow.

The blemished door clanked a close, and the lock was turned leaving the key still inserted in its keyhole. Serenity placed the clothes she pouched on her breasts, and laid them on a mold white chair.

She turned the bath faucet and placed her hand underneath to check its temperature, Serenity jolted her hand back at the alarming coldness of the water. She returned her hand underneath and let the warming aquamarine water dribble on her palm.

Soon steam rose from the tap, and Serenity turned on the other faucet, letting cold water blend and intertwine with the hot. Serenity grabbed a stopper and covered drainage hole with it, letting the water rise to its preferred height.

Serenity went into the sink cupboards, which had the doors slightly on a tilted angle and retrieved a bottle of lilac coloured bath wash. She twisted the cap and poured a considerable amount of the liquid into the water, chemicals reacted with the water letting foamy bubbles arise, sitting proudly on the water's surface.

Serenity slipped off her wooly gray coat and dumped it in the corner of the bathroom. She unzipped her pants and pulled them off her legs, revealing the amber grayness of her thighs.

Above the sink was a mirror that had mildew growing permanently on its surface, the edges were covered in the black fungi but the middle was still alive. Serenity contemplated over her reflection, she edged closer to the mirrors surface glaring at her own face.

Faint creases and marks were visible around the bridge of her nose and mouth, skin on her chin and the dents of her nose were peeling and pink. Serenity's mouth was a faint gray tint and her eyes blinked the colour of a dying autumn leaf, green and mud brown.

Her buttoned shirt fell to the ground and hunched its surface as it touched the floor. Serenity turned around her naked body and dipped herself into lathery water; she twisted the faucet clock-wise stopping water from filling up the already extensively inundated bathtub.

The alabaster coloured bubbles sat surely on the waters superficial, the dyeing light had still aspired a hollow tinge of silver amongst the groups of bubbles.

Serenity felt the anxiety bottled up in her neck and tendons unravel, as the nutritious heat undid her many years of torment and stress. She felt as though her whole life was replaying in her conscience, giving her a clue to her choice.

'Should she go back to Japan?'

Her brother had phoned an invitation to plead her to go back, back to where fate showed no mercy. Was she ready? Does she want to see the faces of those that haunted her reverie for seven isolated years?

Her heart and mind was solid, she wanted nothing to do with the ones who ruined her pristine life, and all she wanted was to never again look into the eyes of mendacious lies.

The only answer that her heart felt obliged to follow was 'no' she never wanted to see the face of her brother again, even at her funeral she would make sure beforehand, not to let him know.

Serenity's decision was bias only by her prerogative, scorn ate away at her flesh it spread through her veins, and it became part of her idiosyncrasy.

It wasn't because she wanted to save him the torment, no one persistent enough could understand or even perceive the melodramatic path of her foul life.

A light catch phrase was embedded in the subconscious of her mind; Serenity wheeler doesn't need her fucken brother to make her life complete.

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I don't need you to tell me I'm pretty  
To make me feel beautiful  
I don't need you to give me your strength  
To make me feel I'm strong  
I've got all of the strength that I need  
Here inside my own two hands  
All that I want is your love  
And respect for who I am  
What I really need  
Comes from deep inside of me

Don't need you to tell me I'm pretty  
To make me feel beautiful, no  
Don't need you to make me strong  
'Cause I'm strong on my own  
Doesn't come from outside  
This beauty I know  
Comes from inside my soul

**I Don't Need You (Tell Me I'm Pretty)**

Samantha Mumba 

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She needs no one.

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Copper and russet leaves of the Japanese maple tree cascaded with its aerodynamic surfaces mindlessly gliding on to the overpopulated streets below. The sky was painted an embracing shade of tangerine, and the clouds reflected a colour of diluted coral.

"Ya kno' Yuge the party's gonna be great" "I planned for like a whole band ta com' an' like jam som' tunes, wadaya think?" Joey walked backwards with his front facing Yugi who ludicrously was barely half his height.

"Well it sounds really cool Joey, though I am not exactly keen on the whole rock band thing, but I am sure it will attract a lot of attention" Yugi sunk his brows, while walking in a moderately uneasy pace, and his hands burrowed into his pockets.

"Exactly, ther' will be a band and it equals alota people, that's perfect" Joey grimaced, just as he happened to stumble on an unfortunate rock. The flaxen haired youth regained his balance, while Yugi just browsed with formality.

"Joey I think you should just walk beside me, it would probably be easier to talk to you that way too" Yugi suggested as Joey once again stood on a rock, and was now cradling his foot.

"Yea I guess" Joey submitted to Yugi's concerns, and stood facing the same side as Yugi, so that their shoulders rubbed against each other.

"Actually Joey wasn't this so called party meant to be a reunion?" Yugi stuck his head sideways at Joey who sunk into silence; his eyes battled tears and the bangs that were meant to be on his forehead glued onto his eyes.

Yugi picked up the sudden change of air, and hastened to change the subject. "Well I'm sure Marik and them all would be too busy to come to some reunion, so I guess that is out of the question" "Joey lets just stick with the rock party".

They turned the corner as a few of the civilians on the street peered at Joey with a look of shame, a full-grown man was blubbering on a public street. "Look Joey we're here, I'm sure Mai and Tea are waiting for us" Yugi stopped walking and stood in front of a dusty white coloured apartment, identical to that of the other buildings in the radius.

"It's ok Yuge jus' da Japan dust, man dat dust can really get to ya" Joey rubbed his eyes which turned a panda shade of baby pink. "Let's go" Yugi leaded the way up to the apartment he shared with his wife Tea.

Yugi checked his pockets for the key, but then realized he had left it in the bathroom bench, "Dammit" Joey lifted a brow at Yugi's cuss, it wasn't everyday the saint Yugi Motou would speak the language of the damned.

"Guess I have to knock, I do hope Tea is home," Yugi rapped mindfully and with utter manner on the army gray door. "Who is it?" a feminine voice emitted from behind the wooden door.

"Tea, its just me Yugi", a slight o was the reply, before the somber coloured door was pulled open. Tea was dressed in a pink and yellow-checkered apron, with oven muffs adorning her hands. "Hi".

Yugi advanced and pecked his wife on the cheek before moving into their peach walled apartment, "Oh hi Joey, are you okay? You look quite…………..pink" Tea added after noticing Joey standing with a sort of masculine grace, which was unlike him. "Well come in don't just stand there".

"Thanks Tea" Joey gave Tea a gracious smile, before advancing into the room also. The lounge was quite spacious in diameter but still looked somehow cramped, the windows had beige curtains parted to the side, letting yellow light enter the room.

The floor was covered mainly in a pinky-cream coloured carpet, and every warm shade suited perfectly, it was like the replica of a dollhouse. Yugi sat on the dining table with Joey on the opposite side, they each was drowning in the conversation mainly about the upcoming party.

Tea retired into the kitchen after adjusting the lock on the door, she used her oven muffs to brush a few locks of hair that had gone astray. She still looked as fresh and peachy skinned as she did seven years ago; her summer charisma still hadn't altered.

She returned from the kitchen with a plate of oven morsels, cupcakes, slices of fudge, cake and scones. Tea set it out in front of where Yugi and Joey sat, she then paced back and came back with a plate with two transparent glasses and a jar of home-squeezed and blended berry with apple juice.

"Wow Tea, did you mak' all dis?" Joey's eyes rounded with eager waiting, she giggled at his expression, when it comes to food Joey Wheeler can never change.

Yugi reached for a strawberry and chocolate chip muffin, when Joey grabbed the plate and started eating all the chocolate snacks. "Ah, I wasn't hungry anyway" Yugi was stifled for words, but inwardly forgave Joey's vexation.

With a silent tap of a blushing pink round-nose shoe, the room's attention was served towards a new visitor that supposedly arrived from the kitchen, or lavatory. "Joey, how many times do I have to tell you? Where are your manners?"

Mai Wheeler, the newly cognate wife of Joey Wheeler stood with an abhor strain on her cosmetically enhanced face. Her husband, who was previously merged in the untangled feast of sweetness, jerked his head in her direction while still dangling the residue of a strawberry fondue.

He let go, hesitantly of the muffin squashed to unidentifiable standards, Tea let loose the nervous air trapped in her upper trachea. "Hey Mai, didn't notice you here" Yugi gave a welcoming smile in Mai's direction.

"Well, excuse me for not greeting you two, and stopping Joey from eating your whole years supply of muffins" Mai boldly reiterated her speech. She gave the standing a vacation, and stole a seat beside her husband and diagonally opposite to Yugi.

While still resting a curious eye on Joey, who was now too aghast to even move, Mai reached for the glass chalice and poured her self a full glass of the burgundy juice.

She let the juice seep into her mouth and let the taste sink in, "Hey Tea this is some grand juice you have, you could start a whole juice business or something with this sort of talent".

Tea poked her head from the kitchen corner and showed a sign of content, "Thanks, completely homemade that is, if you want I could give you the recipe"

"That's okay, if I want some of the juice I'll just remember come over" Mai added with a smile, she wasn't languorous just a little too assiduous with work and everything.

In the last few years, Mai had struck gold with a new fashion industry; she had taken on the role of manager for Élan. It was a perfect fit for her vogue craving life, she knew how to look fashionable, and Élan needed a fashion manager who knew what they wanted.

Joey also had a business job, one that took everyone by awe; he worked as the director of employees at a national food business. His wife had a good laugh or two at the suitability of his newfound job, but he just pushed it to the classification of luck.

"Joey, aren't you having some sort of a party?" Tea now was seated next to her husband and also poured herself a glass of her homemade juice. "Oh yea, Joey told me about that, wasn't it some kind of a battle city somewhat reunion or something" Mai followed behind Tea who was now staring at Joey for an answer.

"Nah I dropped that idea, Sis doesn't wana com' I rang her yesterday" Joey lost his giddy tone of voice, and Tea just swirled her cup around in her hand, feeling rueful of her words.

"I still think we should have a reunion, it has been seven years since all of us had come together and visited each other, with the most far off one being Serenity" "Joey please just try and coax her to come, you need to see her" Yugi and Tea both nodded simultaneously at Mai's statements.

The cream curtains billowed in the dusky breeze, and the afternoon was depleting into night. A sublime sample of a picturesque sunset was quite a rare sight in Japan, over pollution and the large quantities of factory waste caused the sky to bleed a piercing red.

"She hasn't replied but I just don't know if she would want to, I doubt she would" Joey was losing his confidence all in a sentence, to talk about his sister was considered a foreign subject, and one to be avoided. Mai slid her hand across the table and used them to caress Joey's own hand, which limped on the apricot coloured table.

"Don't say that, I'm sure that if she doesn't or can't come, it is because of a specific reason" Yugi spoke, then glanced sideways at Tea, who was just as somber as the rest of the atmosphere.

Seconds, minutes, maybe even tens of minutes that ticked and tocked by, but still the four friends sat diligently living inside their own reveries.

"Serenity is changing, I know she is" Joey breathed the words out as if they were confidential information. Mai blinked, not quite able to digest the newly spoken words.

Mai circled the amber oak table, stabbing it with her forest berry coloured nail polish, the fragile curls heated into her lashes bounced on the lip of her eye sweeping away much more than just dust.

"I don't blame her, she's been through a lot" "I think I would be even worse, if I was in her shoes"

"Her change is not her fault, it's ours"

Mai was no naïve woman; she too had been through a lot but never as much as what Serenity and walked through.

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But sometimes, a person suffers silently veil the worst behind their skin.

And if you hesitate to say sorry, everything that was once there would be gone, evaporated leaving behind a carcass of the scorn you had brought upon the weak.

Soon it would be too late, and sorry or the begging of forgiveness wont cause any effect at all, instead you will be paying for every ounce of wrongdoing, and then you will be the one in pain.

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Pots of stanching coal mixture, and palates of scissors and brushes were stacked around the contemporarily decorated room. Cascading mirrors with raw edges that were chipped at common locations, hung from the walls.

Locks of mud blonde hair was unkemptly scattered over the floor and appliances. The salon was empty except for the extended shadow of a coal haired girl, vigilant of only the sheet of reflection before her.

Serenity gulped a ball of saliva, and stared into the oval mirror. The mint snips of hair were left with the reminiscence of a sharp blade, marking them with a sign of new change.

The prints of her fingers slid over the edge of her new haircut, it ended its path on her shoulder but it was its colour, which drank the light. Not a glimpse of saffron hair remained; it was all coated in a mask of velvety black.

A triangular shaped clock, which had patches of white light rebounding off its surface and causing great discomfort for whoever stared at its man-made deity form.

The edges seemed to mingle with the colour of the wall, and the two different colours fought. The clocks protruding lime green and the meadowland yellow of the wall reflected each other's glares stronger and more persistent with each stare.

Second by second the most lean of the clock hands ticked then paused, ticked then paused, the pattern was typical yet unyielding.

At times metallic blue could be seen from the black of her hair, but also on occasions an infused violet glimmered from above the sea of Hades.

For over her whole life, Serenity has been seen with her pair of childish and elongated bangs, instead the pair had being rightfully replaced by a single fringe that did well in shortening her oval face.

The ebony fringe was cut in uneven customaries ending at the every tip of her eyelashes. The dead brunette of her hair colour complemented adeptly with the ivory of her complexion.

It made her look younger, it made her vex in the possibility of shedding a new skin, the dirt of her eyes swallowed in every detail of her de novo. The peony lips of Serenity curled into a blank smile, which later immediately bounced back into their former position.

Serenity's sea green sweater was sprinkled with snippets of flaxen hair, not only finding their way to land on her body but around the chair and on the nakedness of her toes.

The effect looked like an imp threw bundles of the wrong coloured hair onto Serenity's paraphernalia. Sable lofts of black hair are what looked more natural and handsome on her head, than her previous life of brown.

With a sweep of her hand onto the crust of her head, Serenity rubbed off the remaining residue of her new haircut. She slid off the foamy patent leather chair and rushed to clean the urbanely located garbage of her new mess.

It didn't take very long for Serenity to give the coffee floor a final sweep, before leaning the broom onto the end wall of the cleaning closet.

Serenity's mossy coat waited patiently for her on the second of the top hook of the metal coat hanger. She grabbed the boutique scored outerwear, and without much whim slid into its woolen embrace.

Tucked inside the outer pocket of the fern gray coat, was a folded airline ticket, with the logo and name 'Canadian Airlines' (I do not own that) printed on the lug of the envelope.

With a flick of the switch, the indoor lights lived their last breath for the day and let the parlor bathe in sleep. The glass and steel door opened letting new air escape into the room, where it will stay for the night, until tomorrow gave it hello.

Serenity peeled the door shut and inserted the square handled key, wind battled against itself pushing and pulling Serenity with its abhorrence.

Snow hid themselves in tiny corners or masked edges of solid formations; trying their hardest to save the last of their short lived life. A pair of boots stood over and on the icy waste, walking down a black and white road.

Serenity made no waste to linger on the soiled road; instead she made a hurry to pace home.

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ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

PHEW, finally finished. I know that took a while but I was still on the verge of designing the ending to this fic' and I thought of a perfect fit. Of course primarily I won't tell you. You have to read and find out!!

Please review and tell me how you feel this chapter went. And also state whether you like happy endings or sad ones. Just wondering!

Till next time……..


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